The Home Depot — Local services in Wake Forest

We are new home buyers in the area, as we purchased our first Whirlpool refrigerator at this Wake Forest location. The cashiers have been friendly, however, we have only been assisted once by the gentleman in the Behr paint section of the store. Other than him, we have never been approached or asked if we need any assistance. Most of the associates in the store look in our direction and keep moving, so we just figure it out on our own most of the time. We are in the process of purchasing vertical blinds for our screened in porch and sliding glass door, we chose the Home Depot because we have established a line of credit with this store. The women in this department who are supposed to assist in selecting the blinds, setting up the measurements, and purchasing the blinds have been less than friendly and flat out rude. The first time we talked to an associate in the blinds section, she offered the entire book of blinds to take home so we could find what we liked and figure it out ourselves. She ultimately helped us get set up for measurements which were completed professionally and on time as it was scheduled. The contractors who measured our sliding glass door and screened in the porch suggested calling and going into the store to complete the process and get the installation scheduled. We came into the store about 9:30 p.m. and Karla was working in the blinds section. We asked her if she could help us with getting our blinds ordered and getting a price quote. Karla said she would have to look it up so we needed to tell her what we wanted, even though we needed her help to find out what would work for us. We asked numerous times to get an idea of the price range so we knew what we were looking at and she was no help. She seemed as if we were bothering her by asking for her. Again we were not helped and we walked over to the section and grabbed the books of options ourselves, as Karla got on the phone to serve other customers who were not in the store (this is what she told us) but until that point she was not doing anything but sitting at the desk. We stood there for about 10 minutes as another group of customers waited and Karla ignored them also. A man came over to talk to Karla and she asked him if he could "help these customers". I was immediately frustrated and took the book to Karla's desk and said "yes, these customers need help and it feels like you do not want to help us." She said she was calling other customers (at almost 10pm on a weekday) and Greg could help us. I told her I would be writing and calling about her lack of professionalism and customer service skills and she did not seem to care. We are now deciding if we will purchase blinds from Home Depot or shop elsewhere. Hopefully Karla can be retrained on how to treat paying customers with just a...

A DISAPPOINTING TRANSACTION INTERACTION

In early September, we purchased a Samsung smart refrigerator from this location. I explained to the salesperson that I had cataracts and could not read the labels, but I told them the dimensions of the opening in my kitchen. They assured me it was a good pick, and we completed the purchase. It was delivered a few days later and was about 3 inches too large for the opening. Because the delivery guys had already removed my old refrigerator, they told me they had to leave the new one (in the middle of the kitchen), and we could use it as a loaner.

I returned to Home Depot and purchased another unit, this time making sure I was sold the correct size. We coordinated the loaner pickup and delivery of the new one. Mind you, this all took place within 10 days of the original transaction. This was the good part.

We are now in mid-November, and Home Depot has still not refunded the cost of the first refrigerator! Despite multiple phone calls to customer service and the store, a verification from Samsung that the original refrigerator had been received as a return, and documentation of both the return and the refund, we have not received a refund. In fact, our HD credit card has been accruing interest on that purchase!

We visited the store last night; here was our experience: The assistant store manager initially said that he would have things resolved and that the refund would occur "before you leave tonight." The woman from the appliance department seemed more interested in telling us why the refund hadn't happened rather than working to make it happen. The assistant store manager then said the refund would only happen once they had verified with the delivery company that the return had occurred. THE REFRIGERATOR WAS RETURNED IN SEPTEMBER. And we had a delivery verification number. It was frustrating.

Only one person took direct action to resolve this. A big "Thank you" to Sharelle, who called the right place, spoke to the right person, and has moved things in the right direction toward resolving this whole thing by Monday (we hope).

My biggest takeaway is that I should make these types of purchases at appliance specialty stores rather than big-box stores. My expectations far exceeded my experience...

Terrible Customer Service! Driving thru on vacation, needed to swap an HDMI cable that broke after one use (son's lap top) The return associate refused to look up the receipt with my son's debit card. She asked if HD even sold that cable after we got a replacement off the shelf. She wasn't friendly at all, her tone was curt. After about 15 mins, She finally agreed to swap the cable but not happy. My husband and older boys went back to the car and I stayed behind to take our youngest to the bathroom. As we walked down the front of the racetrack, we past a total of 5 associates. Three working on a display in front of hardware and two in front of the self check out/ pro area. No one acknowledged us even as I made eye.contact and spoke. As we were leaving the front of the store, the returns associate and an older gentleman (greeter?) Were talking loudly about the return my son did while holding the cable and empty pkg in hand. I slowed to listen but didn't say anything. The lady was fusing about people returning stuff that was used instead of throwing it in the trash where it belonged. The older gentleman agreeing. She went on to say that it's the same as stealing and people didn't care. They just wanted something new every week or so. First off let me say if she'd done her job,and looked up the receipt with my son's debit card, she would've seen it was bought last week for the trip this weekend. Tried to use it last night when he noticed it was defective. She could've done an RTV even exchange without question too. She was just an irritable human being who does not want to work customer service. I'm actually a Home Depot associate (13 yrs, 3 dif stores-North Atlanta area near Frank Blake's home-retired CEO) and have worked pretty much every department including back office. I've dealt with all kinds of customers and do know that some people DO want something for nothing. BUT if they have a receipt that's less than two weeks, it's no questions asked, return it. Since we did not get a receipt with the store information, I am unable to survey and get this info directly to the store Mgr. I do hope this gets back to them. We make this our route to Hatteras every year and we will not ever stop at that...